The death toll from the Sitakunda container depot fire now stands at 48 after the police yesterday recovered human remains from the debris, 10 days after the deadly blast.
The remains were sent to the Chattogram Medical College Hospital Morgue after taking DNA samples, said Md Ashraful Karim, additional superintendent of Sitakunda Circle police.
On the evening of June 4, a huge fire broke out at the BM Inland Container Depot, a Dutch-Bangladesh joint venture, in the town of Sitakunda, 20 miles north of the country’s main port in Chattogram.
At the time of the fire, at least 27 jerrycans of hydrogen peroxide were stored in the container depot.
Hydrogen peroxide is not a flammable substance but it can cause a fire to intensify. This is exactly what transpired when the fire came in contact with the plastic jerrycans.
The jerrycans — which came from the Hathazari-based Al-Razi Chemical Complex, one of the companies of Smart Group that also owns the depot — were awaiting shipment.
There were multiple explosions that aggravated the blaze to such a degree that it took three days to bring it under control.
As many as 10 firefighters died, making it the deadliest for Bangladesh’s inadequate fire service department.
Following the incident, police filed a case accusing eight depot officials of their alleged negligence while on duty. But the depot’s owners, one of whom is a treasurer of Awami League’s Chattogram south unit, were spared.
Several investigation committees are conducting their investigation to find out the truth behind the blast.
So far 29 bodies were handed over to their families after confirming their identities.
